Lenny Dee
Dee-Day! (Decca DL8628)

A friend and I used to joke about running across someone who knew the entire sprawling Jimmy Smith catalog down to an exact science, and could identify an album immediately after the needle hit the groove. A much better "joke" would be to substitute in Lenny Dee's name instead.

These days a thrift store staple, the organist Dee nevertheless seems to be more consistent than AC/DC in terms of output & style. I had stopped my collecting of Dee albums a bit back, simply because I realized I didn't know WHY I was collecting them. It might've been a few covers that catched my eye, or maybe because I thought I needed more Hammond albums around the house (the harsh truth? I don't.).

Still, this one needed to be purchased for its artist/title pun alone (and with several more listed on the catalog on back, too), and let's be frank … you don't hear timbres like this anywhere anymore besides at ballparks. Even quasi-retro artists like Stereolab haven't really embraced the perky-reverby sounds of grandma's house, as they damn well should.

Amazingly, Dee-Day! does seem to differentiate itself from others in "dee" pack. Opener "Satan Takes a Holiday" is catchy (and a fairly great title, too), setting the crisp brushed-drums-and-organ format that permeates the album. The rest is a cache littered with quality chosen standards, including "Basin Street Blues," "Where or When," "Lady Be Good," and a very welcome "Side by Side."

"Big Boogie Dee" features a great buzzy bassoon sound, which of course is nothing more than an organ trying to sound like a buzzy bassoon … mostly, it makes me wish that one of Dee's illegitimate black grandchildren would accept the mantle of being Big Boogie Dee, the first organist/rapper.

The expertly titled "Sleep" is oddly just as perky as everything else on Dee-Day!, so much unlike what you expect a song entitled "Sleep" to sound like that I walked over to the turntable twice to make sure it was the right song. Bonus points to Lenny on this one for subversiveness.

Lenny had some great chops, and could make the Hammond tweet like few others ever could (modern day organist Ernie Hays comes close), but I bet even Lenny's parents didn't keep the covers to more than two of his albums dust-free. Oh, and kudos for Lenny for dumping the moustache for this album, making him less like a distorted Walt Disney, and more like an amicable small-town pastor.

Loud Bassoon rating scale

Review by Quinzio